Although the company poured its first gold bar in June, 1986, Gordex Minerals of Saint John, N.B., had to find a technological fix to bring its small Cape Spencer gold mine officially into commercial production in 1987. That technical fix is called vat leaching — a process which involves piling broken ore into huge, 50,000- ton, polyurethane-lined depressions then flood-leaching it with dilute cyanide solution. By covering the piles with a polyurethane cover, Gordex should be able to operate during the cold winters of the Fundy coast and during wet periods without over- diluting the cyanide solutions. Estimates are that the operation will pour 11,000 oz of the yellow metal this year at a recovery rate of about 77% and a total production cost of about $200(US) an oz.
With reserves of about one million tons at a grade of 0.057 oz gold per ton, the operation has enough ore to last about four years. Exploration work is on-going in the area to develop new reserves.
Open-pit production is expected to get up to 250,000 tons this year — more than double last year’s production rate. To handle the added production, Gordex is converting its zinc precipitation milling operation to carbon adsorption. Cape Spencer Notebook Location: ……. northeast of Saint John, N.B. Major owner: ……. Gordex Minerals Commodity: ……. gold Discovery: ……. 1956 Production decision: ……. unavailable Start-up: ……. August, 1987 Capital Costs: ……. unavailable Operating Costs: ……. $200(US) per oz Reserves: ……. one million tons, grading 0.057 oz gold per ton Mining method: ……. open pit Mining equipment: ……. unavailable Production rate: ……. 250,000 tons per year Milling: ……. vat leaching, carbon adsorption, electrowinning. Major contractors: ……. unavailable Status: ……. production
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